The Other Side of the Pond
by shinamarih
Summary: A girl unknowingly stumbles upon THE Michael Phelps on a message board dedicated to the swimmer.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

"I don't know how to help you if you don't tell me what you're really struggling with here, Sarah."

"Well, you know what, I'm not really sure myself, so why don't we just end this session now? It'll definitely save you more time," Sarah muttered.

"Whoa, there. What's up with the attitude? This is a coaching session, Sarah, for crying out loud. I don't know what your issues are seeing as you don't really want to talk a lot. I'm trying to reach out here, but you don't seem to want the help." Sarah's team leader, Madison said.

"You know what? You're right though, you _are_ wasting my time here, I don't need you and your attitude when all I'm trying to do is help. Why don't you log back in? The queue's piling up anyway."

Sarah stood up without another word and went back to her workstation and put on the headset. She stared at the monitor a few feet behind her to check how many calls have been waiting. She groaned as she saw that it was again more than ten, for the fifth straight day. It had annoyed to her no end that it had been like this over the last few months. She tried to remember what their trainers had told them at the start of their training for a new queue. Call volume wouldn't be as much, people will be a breeze to talk to, and especially, they wouldn't be required to upsell. All of them had been broken promises now, she thought sadly, and they didn't have any choice but to follow.

But she had reached the end of her rope by this time. Sarah was sick and tired of doing the same thing over and over again. She wanted a change, a chance to start over. That would mean though that she had to resign from work, something that she couldn't afford to do at this point. She wasn't getting any younger, and it would be extremely difficult for her to get a job that is related to the degree she finished eight years ago. It would be a big adjustment if she'll get a job in the advertising field. She'll have to start from the bottom of the pack and it was really something she wasn't looking forward to.

Sarah took a deep breath and made a silent prayer that somehow, today at least would turn out better than how it started. She pushed the "Ready" button on her phone and took in a call on queue. _Here we go again,_ she thought to herself. Mustering the sincerest smile she could, she gave out her opening spiel.

"Thank you for calling the Bank of Stratford, my name is Sarah, how can I help you today?"

Sarah closed her eyes as the caller rambled on with her concern, praying for the day to end sooner. All she wanted to do was to climb to bed and sleep to her heart's content.

And then she would repeat the same cycle she had been doing over the last three years. Dread the morning to go to work.

She was glad though that she had at least a respite to look forward to at the end of these dragging days.


	2. Chapter 1

27-year old Sarah Ramirez woke up that morning to the shrill sound of her phone's alarm clock. She fumbled beside her to get the phone to stop. She checked the time; she decided to snooze the alarm for another 20 minutes, making a quick calculation of the time she needed so as not to be late for work.

"Sarah, don't you have work today?" someone nudged her an hour after.

"What?" she mumbled sleepily.

"It's 7:30 already, Sarah, aren't you going to be late for work?"

Sarah jerked out of bed and checked her phone, it had indeed read 7:30 A.M. She was usually in the office by this time and she slapped her forehead that she will be late for the first time in four years. She scrambled to get out of bed and made a mad dash to her bathroom to take a quick shower.

"I had breakfast prepared already, sis. I even put some food away for your lunch," it was Sarah's sister, Callie who had come in to wake her. "I'm gonna head to school now, take care okay?"

"Thanks Cal! Good luck on your exams today!"

Callie smiled as she got out of her sister's room, despite a lot of things going on in her big sister's life, she never forgot about the little things. She remembered telling Sarah only once that this week was finals week but she still remembered. She was reminded of why she loves her sister so much.

Sarah had never ran to get to work before. She had always been on time, early even because she didn't like rushing. The extra time also allowed her to visit the fan forum of one of her favorite swimmers, Michael Phelps. She liked reading the fiction stories that the fans write about their Idol. Some were good, while some had bordered on being ridiculous and raunchy. Most of the writers have been females and understandably so, I mean, come on, who couldn't resist fantasizing about Michael? In the fiction world, he can be anything they wanted him to be – the sweet guy next door, a troubled soul, a sex therapist, the possibilities are endless. She nearly posted a story of her own but decided against it at the last minute, thinking no one would appreciate it.

Sarah impatiently tapped her toes while she was on the elevator while checking her watch every five seconds. She was now officially an hour and fifty five minutes late. If she can't log in to her station in the next five minutes, she will be considered absent for the day. And being absent now is something that she can't afford. She is currently on probation for attendance and she hasn't fully completed the 60 day rehab period.

"Ramirez, glad you could join us today!" Mark, one of her teammates, greeted her in his signature mocking tone. The rest of the team harassed her as well. There was one other guy who didn't join the others in messing with her. As she plopped on to her chair and flipped open her computer, it was the guy seated in her left who was the only one with his brows furrowed with concern.

"Hey Sarah," Adam began. "What happened?" His voice was tinged with the tiniest bit of worry.

Sarah leaned back in her chair as she waited for the computer to hum to life as she took out her stuff out of her bag. After setting her tumbler on the desk, she looked at Adam and raised her hands in frustration.

"Can you believe it? I overslept! First time in ages! I've never been late! Ugh!" Sarah said exasperatedly. She logged on to the computer and put her time in, she was 2 minutes earlier than the log in time, she sighed in relief. She waited for everything else to load in the screen.

"It happens," Adam said. "At least you weren't absent still. I guess –" he trailed off, as she noticed on his screen he received a call. She turned her attention back to her own computer and started loading the systems she needed to use.


	3. Chapter 2

Sarah was thankful it had been an easy day so far. Checking again the plasma screen behind her, she sighed with relief that she'd be enjoying a few more minutes than usual of availability time. Adam was on lunch break and she had no one to talk to.

Humming quietly to herself while opening a new window on her screen, she scrolled through her bookmarks and clicked on the link to go to the Michael Phelps website and catch up on the last story she'd been reading, this one about Michael competing for a girl with Ian Thorpe.

She was in the middle of another chapter when a call came in so she immediately closed the window, not even bothering to check what page she was on.

"Thank you for calling. Have a good day," Sarah waited for the caller to drop the call before she opened Phelps' website again.

The site's activity had been significantly down since Michael's unbelievable feat of eight gold medals in 2008 in Beijing. Just about two mods come once in a while to check and a few of the regulars lurk once in a while. Newbies were coming sporadically and some had taken the time to introduce themselves but that was it.

Sarah checked her watch. It was her turn for lunch so she turned the monitor off. She swiveled her chair to her right to get up but nearly fell over when she saw Adam seated, quietly snoring.

"Dear mother of God, Adam!" Sarah said as she sucked in a breath. She stood up clutching her chest as she slapped the back of Adam's chair. Adam jerked awake, rubbed his eyes and turned to look at her with a stupid grin on his face.

"The sleep rooms were empty."

"I…well…you could have given me a heart attack, you dumbass," Sarah took her lunch bag and her tumbler. "Anyway, I'm heading to the cafeteria to eat. I'll see you later."

"Later, Sarah."

"Thank God," Sarah muttered under her breath as her last caller had finally hung up after almost an hour of conversation. She had been trying, albeit rather unsuccessfully how a certain charge was billed to her credit card. Much to her relief, the woman decided to figure it out for herself and abruptly dropped the call. It was two minutes before she logged off, and that had given her enough time to fix her things. When four o'clock rolled around, she'd been done and ready to go.

"Whoa, hey, Sarah," Adam called out to her just as she was standing up to leave.

"What?!" Sarah replied rather gruffly, still reeling from the last call she took in.

"You alright? I just wanted to tell you the guys and I are headed to the bar after Mark's shift. I know that's another hour, but I was wondering if you could join us?" he asked expectantly. Sarah remembered she hasn't hung out with the guys for some time. She gave it a quick thought and agreed.

"Um, yeah. Sure. Drop by the rec room, I'll be there," Sarah said.

"Great. Um, I – we'll see you later then."

"Oh my god, Adam is so checking you out," another one of Sarah's teammates, Lindsay whispered to her ear. Sarah took a sip of her beer and looked at Adam, who was indeed looking at her. He looked away as soon as she caught his eye.

"No, he's not," Sarah set the bottle on the table and rolled her eyes at her friend. "I heard the other day he wanted to take Suzy Davis out I heard him talking to Mark about it."

"So what? That doesn't mean that she's the one he really wants. I bet the guy got tired of trying to figure you out and is now trying to move on," Lindsay tried to keep her voice low so as not to let Mark or Adam hear her. Sarah frowned and turned to her friend.

"Which brings me to my point, he's had all the chances in the world, hell, we sit next to each other every freakin' day, he knows me too damn well, so why couldn't he have just asked?" Just then, Mark stood up three chairs from where Sarah was at and took the next empty one beside her.

"Having fun babe? Adam was so glad – I mean, the boys were glad you came. We missed hanging out with you girl!" Mark took a swig of his drink and gave Sarah a sideways hug.

"Of course you do. You guys miss having someone be the referee to your inane discussions about sex and women. And you perfectly know," Sarah poked Mark's chest. "That I am the only one plucky enough to listen to your testosterone driven ramblings."

"That you are, woman, right on!" Mark raised his glass and stood up to make his way to the other side of the table where the other guys are.

"I am so jealous of you right now. You have to know that," Lindsay said as she took her seat after taking a bathroom break.

"Why?" Sarah asked curiously.

"You have the guys on the team wrapped around your little finger. They'd literally do anything for you. What did you feed them?"

"I do not!" Sarah protested.

"Yes you do. Look at them. In five, four, three, two, one…"

"Well let's see what Sarah thinks. Hey Sarah!" Adam called her.

Lindsay batted her lashes and gave out a knowing look as Sarah got up to join the guys on the other side of the table. Sarah just laughed and lightly socked Lindsay's arm.


	4. Chapter 3

Sarah fished for the keys to her room, thankful that Callie was still awake and had opened the main door for her. The drinking session threatened to go all night, but Sarah protested and the rest of the gang agreed to finish off at 10 as some had work the next day.

She locked up and immediately proceeded to her room to change to more comfortable clothes. Afterwards, she pulled up the drawer on her bedside and took her laptop that was sitting there. Flipping it open, she ran through the basics, checked her inbox for new emails, logged on to AIM and to the Michael Phelps message board. She suddenly remembered she was in the middle of reading a chapter and so she browsed through the pages to find where she had left off.

While scanning through the titles to find the story she was reading, she came across a title that intrigued her. She clicked it open and read through a few chapters. She was a bit disappointed that there weren't any new updates since two weeks ago. She clicked on the author's screen name, _waveslayer2012_ and was pleasantly surprised to find out it was a guy. She sent him a short message complimenting his writing style and asked if he could update soon as she liked his story a lot.

Something about it struck a chord with Sarah. The way his descriptions of the pool and the races he took felt so vivid, like she could almost feel like she was walking on the grounds the character walked on and smelled the scents surrounding the natatorium described. It was almost like the person who wrote actually had experienced it, that it may not have been fictional at all.

Michael Phelps set his gym bag down and plopped himself on the living room sofa of his Baltimore home. He had always liked morning practice but for some reason, today everything was off for him. Bob gave him one of his trademark lectures about being focused and all that jazz, and he just let it roll off his ear, just wanting to get out of the natatorium as soon as possible.

He huffed out a breath and checked his watch. It read 9:20 a.m. He got up from where he was seated and jogged upstairs to go to his room and check his Macbook to see if he had anything lined up for the day. He sighed with relief that he didn't have any. He contemplated on calling Klete Keller or Alex Vanderkaay to see if they wanted to go out later in the evening for a few drinks. Just as he was about to dial one of the guys' number, his laptop buzzed, signaling a new email had come in.

Michael was surprised to find out it was a notification from a message board dedicated to him that he was sent a private message. No one knew that he was a member of one of the more prominent message boards for him. He signed up at first just for fun, using the screen name _waveslayer2012, _as he was curious to know how his fans felt about him but then he was surprised there was a section solely for fan fiction stories and he was amused at how fans had depicted him. He had been hooked ever since and had recently decided to try his hand at writing and have posted several chapters of a story that was half fiction, half fact, drawing on his experiences in and out of the pool.

He originally didn't intend to finish the story he started, but he was dumbfounded to find that people liked his writing and the topic he was writing about. And so despite his busy schedule, he made time to update every now and then. Most of his readers commented on his story on the thread itself, but it would have been the first time that someone had taken the extra time to send him a personal message just to compliment him on his effort. Stifling a yawn, he hit the reply button and typed in a response.

_Hey, thanks! I'm not really a writer but people seem to like what I have posted. I'm just thankful that people have responded to it positively. I'm a bit busy at this time but I've finished an update that I can maybe post tomorrow. Looking forward to read your thoughts on that._

Michael smiled to himself as he sent the response to _S_isanMPfan_. He was almost sure that she was a girl; after all, most of the posters on the site were females. He folded the laptop shut and put it beside him. His phone rang on his bedside table, checked on the caller ID and took the call.

"Yo Peter! Not the Vanderkaay I was intending to call, but, yeah, what's up?"

"Well, you'd just have to make do with me for now. I was wondering if you're free tonight. Christian just got engaged and she's bringing his fiancé, Melissa for the family to meet, I'll fly in later this afternoon and you can maybe pick me up on the airport on the way," Peter said on the other line.

"Wow, that's excellent Pete. I just got done reviewing my schedule and I am free for the whole day. What time do I need to be there?"

Michael and Peter exchanged a few more details in regards to the dinner later in the evening at the Vanderkaays and hung up. Michael forgot all about breakfast as he soon drifted to sleep after.


	5. Chapter 4

"Mmm, Robin. This is awesome! I can't remember the last time I ate a meatloaf this good. I'm so glad I decided to come tonight," Mike said in between mouthfuls of food. Everyone laughed at how silly he looked with his mouth full. Dane stuck a camera in Michael's face, the flash momentarily blinding him.

Dane checked out how the picture went and showed it to everyone except Michael. Everyone was in stitches, to say the least. Mike took a swig of water and tried to snatch the camera from him.

"Nuh-uh," Dane said, pulling the camera away from Mike. "Don't worry though, this isn't going on Facebook."

"You better make sure of that Dane."

"Yeah, you got no problems with me, I don't know about Alex though," Dane said as he cocked an eyebrow at Alex, who was seated beside Mike.

"Oh dear," Robin, the Vanderkaay matriarch, stood up and started gathering the dinner plates of the boys as she feigned a looked of helplessness at her husband Mark. "I swear, it's like all four of you act like you're still in college."

"I'm sorry Melissa," Christian said to his fiance, who's trying very hard not to laugh so hard. "See why I don't go home often?" He smirked at the three other guys on the table as both he and his fiancé stood up.

"Like you don't have any crazy schemes of your own, Christian," Peter finally said as he also stood up. Everyone else followed suit and they all went out the front porch.

"So Peter, how's training in Florida going so far? How is Ryan and everyone?" Mike said as he slapped his friend on the arm.

"You know what, it's been great, much to my surprise. Everyone was so accommodating and I didn't have so much of a hard time adjusting. Ryan, well, you know him, as soon as we can go out, he took me to his hotspots, dude hasn't changed," Peter said with a smile. "How about you man? You ready for London?"

"I feel good about my training, yeah, I'm looking forward to racing Ian Thorpe again. That should be a good way to end my last Olympic games."

"That's good."

"Hey Sarah, can you log out?" Madison called out from her station. Sarah put her headset down and dragged her feet to her supervisor's station.

"Look at these," Madison laid out a piece of paper in front of Sarah. She took it and read what it said.

"What the hell is going on Sarah? Your numbers are down from last month. You're usually one of the highest rated reps in customer surveys and this day alone, I took five supervisor calls from you, all of them complaining about your attitude!" Madison tried to lower her voice so as for her not to be heard by anyone else. Sarah drew out a breath as she stared at the paper she was given.

"I don't know, Maddie," was all she could muster.

"You can't tell me you don't know, Ramirez. Listen, I've been trying to reach out to you all this time, but if you ain't talking, you better start picking yourself up and do better on the phones. I won't hesitate to give you something to sign the next time your numbers drop. You know what that means," Maddie said sadly. She turned to her computer. Sarah took it as a sign to leave and so she got up and went back to her station.

"What was that all about?" Adam asked.

"I'm gonna turn in my resignation by the end of the week," Sarah said resignedly. "I can't do this anymore."

Adam scooted his chair closer to Sarah's and squeezed her arm.

"Are you sure? What happened?"

She opened her mouth to speak but he turned away abruptly, signaling that a call came in. Adam groaned inwardly as he took the call while Sarah sighed and turned her attention back to her screen.

While his customer was talking, Adam sent Sarah a message instead. He felt bad for her and all he wanted to do was to make her feel better.

_August 2, 2011_

_3:25 PM_

_From: Adam Burwood_

_To: Sarah Ramirez_

_wanna grab coffee later?_

Sarah smiled as she read Adam's little email asking her to go out for coffee. She was relieved she didn't have to wait for another hour like in the previous day as his shift ended just fifteen minutes from hers.

"Well ain't this a first. You never invited me for coffee before. What gives?" Sarah eyed Adam suspiciously as they both sat down on the wooden chairs.

"What?" Adam asked innocently. "Can't two friends hang out and talk? You're so jumpy these last few days, do you have your period or something?"

"Right, and caffeine will calm me down. Very helpful Adam, real helpful," Sarah playfully rolled her eyes at him while he scanned the menu for something to order.

Adam just stuck out his tongue at Sarah and handed her the menu. "Order," he commanded. "I'm paying so just make sure it's not more than $5."

"Wow, I'll mark this day on my calendar! Adam buying me something!" she laughed, a little too louder than normal which caused the other patrons to shoot her dagger looks. She covered her face with the menu. Truth be told, she suddenly remembered that night at the bar when she caught him looking at her. Lindsay couldn't be right, could she?

Sarah's thoughts were interrupted when Adam snatched the menu from her and looked at her curiously. She mumbled out her order to the barista waiting and then fiddled with the tissue holder.

"I know when something's bothering you. Talk. Now," he had used that commanding tone on her again and she acquiesced. When Adam set his mind on something, he will not stop until he gets it.

Sarah took a deep breath and spoke slowly.

"I'm sick of this job. I really, really am. It frustrates me so much every single day that I just don't care whether I do well or not. Remember Maddie pulling me out earlier?" Adam nodded. "It was because my numbers were significantly down from last month and my customer surveys were all shit. I didn't have a single thing to tell her why."

"Well, we all have our bad days, you just need to know when to snap out of it," Adam said.

"What if I don't wanna snap out of it?" Sarah said sullenly, crossing her arms in her chest. She tried to keep her eyes level with Adam's but she felt increasingly conscious as his bore on her.

"You're not really serious, aren't you? Come on, Sarah. You're better than this."

"I don't really know what to do anymore, Adam. One thing I'm sure of is that I don't want to take calls anymore. I don't want this job," Sarah replied resignedly. Adam tried to hide the disappointment and sadness in his eyes. He didn't want her to leave. He hadn't even told her how he really felt about her.

Instinctively, he moved to the chair beside Sarah and put his arm around her. Sarah tensed up at first, but she was so frustrated with everything going on lately, she relaxed into his arm and leaned her head on his shoulder.

Later that evening, Sarah found herself on the MP boards again. Her curiosity was piqued when there was a pop up window that said she had received a private message. She momentarily forgot who _waveslayer2012_ was but quickly remembered the story he wrote.

She smiled to herself and decided to check his story thread and found he had updated twice. _So much for not being a writer,_ she thought. She was again mesmerized at the amount of detail he had put in the morning training scene. She could almost hear the shouts of the swimming coach, George Snyder echoing in her ear, the intensity of his words nearly piercing through her. She felt for Ryder Capshaw, the story's main protagonist. After finishing the two intense chapters, she decided to write him back.

_Hey M,_

_I wanted to give Ryder a hug after George bit his head off after practice. Aww. That guy doesn't have a heart does he? Anyway, you've left me wanting more. I hope you don't mind me asking, but I got this feeling that you've drawn Ryder's experiences from a real life person, did you? Are you a swimmer too?_

_S_

Michael smiled as he read S's response to his PM. For some reason he wanted to tell her that he just changed the names and places and that the entire thing was true. He wasn't sure if she'd believe him though so he thought against it. For now.

_Am I a swimmer? Sort of, I guess. As for Ryder, he's definitely a someone. I'm sure a lot of people can relate to him, wouldn't be a total coincidence either if there is someone out there going through the same stuff he does. I guess you could call me instinctive as far as writing him is concerned._

_How about you? How come you never post or comment on the other stories? Thanks again for the feedback._

No one knew that Michael had been writing in his spare time. He found it a good way to release stress and seeing his experiences in print has given him another perspective in terms of approaching his training and his preparation for London. Granted it was a hectic time for him at this stage, with trials coming up in a few months, but writing kept him sane. He wanted to keep at it for as long as he could. After all, there's just so much to share about Michael Phelps's life. Being able to do it anonymously gave him confidence to continue.


	6. Chapter 5

Michael woke up with a start from the shrill ring of his alarm clock. His right arm scuffled for the snooze button but ended up dropping it instead. He groaned and forced himself to get up instead and pick up the clock. It read 5:20. He had no choice as he headed to the closet to get his gym bag and go to practice. He noticed though on the table near his bed that his laptop was blinking. He remembered that he didn't turn it off last night before he slept. Clicking the email icon open, he noticed an email notification, again from the message board.

_You're sort of a swimmer? LOL! How's that? Are you a coach or something? Am I asking too many questions? Nonetheless, you're depicting Ryder and George wonderfully. I hope you don't notice how I'm complimenting you too much just so you can update._

_As for your question, I'm too frank for my own good, and I don't want to come off as this all-knowing bitch to the other members._

Michael and Sarah continued to exchange PM's on a daily basis, eventually moving on from talking about Mike's story to talking about different stuff about their lives. None of them really bothered asking what M and S stood for. After some time, they graduated from exchanging personal messages to live chatting via AIM, keeping the same usernames.

"Um, Cal, can you clean up for tonight? I just need to do something on my laptop," Sarah sided up to her sister after dinner.

"What? No!" Callie whispered back to her furiously. "I'm meeting my friends at 9!"

"Oh come on! Just this one time. Please?" Sarah gave her sister her best puppy dog eyes impression.

"Just this one time, Cal. Please."

Callie turned around to face the sink and muttered irritably at her sister, agreeing to take on the night's chores. Sarah hugged her and raced upstairs to her room, nearly tripping on the sofa.

Sarah jumped up at her bed, snatching the laptop beside her and logged on to AIM. Michael had told her he'd like her to look at some updates he'd written before posting it to the board. She rubbed her hands in anticipation as she waited for the name waveslayer2012 to go on bold, signaling that Michael was online already. Her heart skipped a beat when it finally did. She waited for him to message her though, she didn't want to seem too eager to chat even if in truth she really was.

_waveslayer2012: hey you_

_S_isanMPfan: hey to you too..=)_

_waveslayer2012: how was your day? =)_

_S_isanMPfan: it was okay, work still sucks, but it pays my bills so…_

_waveslayer2012: sucks being an adult, right? Haha_

_S_isanMPfan: I know. omg. anyway..how was your day?_

_waveslayer2012: could've been better. i almost punched someone._

_S_isanMPfan: oh no! what happened?_

_waveslayer2012: some ass just trying to unnerve me I guess. _

_S_isanMPfan: well at least you didn't do it. good for you. *hugs*_

_waveslayer2012: *blush*_

_S_isanMPfan: you're too cute. have you not been hugged by a girl before?_

_waveslayer2012: ah! so you _are _a girl! I knew it!_

_S_isanMPfan: well duh. what female wouldn't love seeing mike on speedos on a daily basis? not to mention how awesome he is outside the pool. I could go on and on about him, but basically, he's quite an inspiration._

Michael was taken aback by what Sarah said. When he first registered to the message boards, he got a general impression of why people liked him, but nothing like this. He never imagined that he'd be in direct contact with one of his fans. The thought scared and excited him.

Sarah frowned at the screen when Michael did not respond to her right away_. Maybe he's busy with something else_, she thought so she also decided to check her emails. When he still didn't respond after ten minutes, she typed back another response.

_S_isanMPfan: hey M? did I scare you with my mikey obsession? =(_

_waveslayer2012: sorry for not replying back right away. no not at all. i think he's cool. what is it anyway that drew you to him?_

Michael never realized how much he has impacted other people's lives until Sarah told him that day how he actually did. He thought back to the DUI and the bong incident in the previous years and felt a fresh round of regret for making such stupid decisions. He promised himself he'll never stoop that low again, seeing as how people look up to him immensely.


	7. Chapter 6

Sarah was still fast asleep when she was pulled out of slumber by Kelly Clarkson screaming from her phone. Her eyes shot open as she reached for the phone beside her and mindlessly took the call.

"Yeah," she said sleepily. The person on the other line laughed. "Lindsay?"

"Good morning Sarah! Rise and shine! This is your wake up call!" Lindsay's uncharacteristically cheerful voice sputtered on the phone.

"Oh my god, Linds, what the hell?" Sarah muttered sleepily.

"Wake up, woman. We're going to the beach today, it's Adam's birthday, remember? We're throwing him a surprise party at his parents' beach house!"

Sarah thought about this for a few seconds and pulled out her planner to open on the current date. She had indeed marked August 6 as his birthday. She got up out of bed and told Lindsay to meet her at the beach house in about an hour.

When she got to the beach house, preparations were already underway. A large streamer was strewn across the room that shouted 'Happy Birthday, Adam!' Tables have been set up on one side for food and drinks and Sarah saw several of her teammates bringing in boxes of several varieties. Mark and Maddie waved at her to help them out.

"Hey guys! Sorry I'm late. If Linds hadn't called me, I would have totally forgotten, thank God," she breathed as she took in a tray of food.

"You would've forgotten? Geez, woman, it's Adam, for crying out loud, you sit with the guy every single day! What is going on in that head of yours anyway?" Mark replied.

"Are you a doctor now Mark? Psychologizing much are we?"

"Um, Sarah, there isn't such a word as psychologizing," Mark rolled his eyes at her mockingly. Maddie laughed while Sarah slapped his arm.

"What time do we start anyway?" Maddie asked.

"Well, I know Adam has some stuff to do until about three, and this party won't start until about six," Lindsay chimed in, coming from behind Sarah.

"Well it's a good thing he doesn't know that we have something prepared for him, but just to at least be safe, Sarah, since you aren't much help here anyway, keep Adam company and bring him here by six, make sure he doesn't come in any earlier," Mark explained. Sarah frowned at him while Lindsay smiled knowingly.

"But I wanna help! Can't you just sic him on someone else?" After their little coffee date the other day, the last thing Sarah wanted was to be alone with him again. Sure, she felt better after talking to him but she still felt uncomfortable whenever Adam looked at her.

Everyone surrounding Sarah left abruptly, definitely leaving her with no choice on the matter. She huffed out a breath and checked her watch. She still had about three hours to kill before she picked him up at his place. She had to think of something. And fast.

Sarah whipped out her phone and dialed Adam's number. _Here goes nothing,_ she thought.

"Ain't this a surprise," Adam said a few hours after, mimicking Sarah's tone the other day when they had coffee.

"What? Can't a girl visit his friend for his birthday? I'm just making sure I don't miss your treat!"

"Oh really now? I thought that's been arranged when the team meets up later?"

Sarah wanted to squirm right there. She didn't know what to say back to him. She realized whatever she tells him would come out a certain way and that will be interpreted by Adam differently.

"Um," Sarah tried to stall and Adam was looking at her expectantly.

"Um, nothing, never mind. Let's go, help me pick out a new outfit!" Adam groaned as Sarah took his hand and led him to her car.

Secretly, Adam had been pleasantly surprised when Sarah showed up on his doorstep asking him if he could join her shopping. It was quite an effort to show her that he had been annoyed, especially when a saleslady mistakenly took him for her boyfriend. He was relieved that she was in the dressing room when the poor saleslady asked.

"Aw, too bad, you look perfect together," the saleslady pursed her lips and nodded her head as she walked away. Sarah came afterwards in a form fitting LBD. Adam tried to steady his breathing when she came out but had enormous trouble doing so.

"So," Sarah twirled for him to see the full dress. "What do you think?" She was wearing a figure hugging red haltered dress with a 5-inch slit on the side that exposed more of her toned thigh. It perfectly showed off the fruits of slaving away at the gym over the last three months. She momentarily forgot who she was with when she picked out the dress to try and now, seeing Adam's reaction to her, she again felt self conscious. He just sat there, staring at her.

"You don't like it," Sarah's face fell. Adam stood up and frantically shook his hands.

"No, no, no! It looks good on you, really, I was just…"

"You were just what?! You know what, never mind!" Sarah went back in to the dressing room and changed to her regular clothes. She tried to steady her breathing after she had changed, after seeing how Adam's stare made her nervous. She knew it was a stupid idea to take him while she shopped her clothes, and she mentally kicked herself for coming with such a lame idea just to keep him busy.

She stormed out of the dressing room and out of the store, pulling out her phone and checking her email, suddenly wishing that M would've messaged her back already. She could hear Adam calling behind her but she didn't mind him. She smiled when there was a notification from the Michael Phelps message board. It was from M indeed.

"Sarah, wait up! I'm sorry okay?" Sarah didn't look back and kept walking while reading M's message. Adam ran up to her and spun her to face him by her shoulder.

She shoved her phone to her pocket and glared at him. "What?! This was definitely a bad idea. I've tried about a million dresses over the last couple of hours. It's hard enough to shop for clothes with a guy tagging along, let alone if he's just staring dumbly at you!"

"Alright, I said I'm sorry, okay? I really am," Adam said exasperatedly. "The clothes you put on didn't exactly make it easy for me to say anything coherent," he finally admitted shyly.

Sarah was at a loss for words after Adam's little admission. So what Lindsay has been might have been true after all. Never in the years that they've been teammates had she thought of him as being anything else other than a close friend.

She sighed and smiled at him, her irritation slightly dissipating a bit and took a step closer to Adam. She tiptoed to give him a kiss on the cheek but he tilted his head to the side and their lips met instead. Sarah hesitated at first but gave in eventually, letting him pull her closer to him as he held her at the waist.

As soon as their lips met, in seconds, it was over. Sarah stepped back and looked at Adam with a mix of confusion and happiness in her eyes. He leaned again and gave her another light peck on the lips.

"Best birthday present. EVER."


End file.
